Today was one to write home about. Aboard the Asteria, we made our way under a sunny sky towards the southwest corner. Approaching a pair of humpbacks not long after our arrival, they soon surprised us with a surfacing about 5 feet from the port pulpit! It turned out to Pitcher and an unidentified companion. Moving on, we found another pair, Hancock and calf, and a group of three in the distance whose identities remain a mystery. Spotting some white water, we turned our bow in that direction, but were soon stopped when we spotted a fin at the surface. It was a mola mola! Ever the weird and fun sighting, we got incredible looks at this infrequently spotted creature of deep.

Mola mola

What happened next is nearly impossible to describe. Approaching the aforementioned splashing, the ocean suddenly began to boil with activity. Whales erupted from the depths, left, right, and center in chin, pull, tail, and full breaches, interrupted only by flipper slapping and lob tailing. Postponing our departure and whipping our heads back and forth trying to keep up with the action, we drank in the spectacular show, only able to identify two key players as Nile and Cardhu. As we departed, it was to a fanfare of activity still unfolding behind us.

A truly awe-inspiring day, and absolutely one for the books.

Breaching whale in distance

Close approach

Later that afternoon, we had two very active adult females! We had a fantastic half hour of full breaches, lobtailing, flipper slapping, and tail breaching from 30-year-old female Nile, while veteran humpback Cardhu was a short distance away flipper slapping with occasional lobtails! We then wrapped up the trip with Perseid’s 17 calf tail breaching next to our boat! I’ll let the photos speak for themselves J. It was a refreshing and exciting jolt to the day!